6/6/2016

Notes from Anjum Rajabalis Screenwriting Workshop Part I | F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b

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Notes from Anjum Rajabalis Screenwriting Workshop

PartI
Posted: April 29, 2016 by moightclub in cinema, Screenwriting, Workshop
Tags: Anjum Rajabali, Screenwriting, Workshop
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When it comes to screenwriting, Anjum Rajabali is probably the best teacher/mentor in B-town.
He organises a screenwriting workshop almost every year. We had posted about this workshop on
our blog. (https://moightclub.com/2016/03/08/5-day-screenwriting-workshop-by-anjumrajabali-all-the-details/) Our friend Dipti Kharude (https://twitter.com/kuhukuro) attended the
workshop this year. Heres her extensive notes from the workshop.
Do read and thank her for putting it all together.

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Notes from Anjum Rajabalis Screenwriting Workshop Part I | F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b

In the early 2000s, I had a juvenile blog. I remember blogging about how, if there were one
extravagant thing Id want in my own house; it had to be a space for screening lms. Another
stray line from that same blog comes to mind. It was more like an afrmation Wish I could make
a lm that would be an expression of the explosion in my heart. The bang I was referring to was a
visceral reaction to incandescent instants on the silver screen. Filmmaking seemed nothing short
of wizardry.
Movie clubs were magical places then. They made the idea of cinema palpable and more
importantly accessible. The most spellbinding moments on screen could be traced back to a web
of words on paper the script or the screenplay that sacrosanct document where imagination
ourished.
Once I began adulting, this curiosity got sidetracked and the searing zeal waned into a tepid
fascination. It was only after rupturing the shackles of a job that I submitted myself to the lure of
cinema again. This time though, I decided to approach it scientically and registered for the 5-day
Screenwriting Workshop by Anjum Rajabali.
Despite the academic approach, it upheld the movie mojo. When you dont miss your phone for 5
straight days, in a world where you are willingly tethered to your devices, you know the
workshop instructor has done a stellar job.
In the interactive master classes, Jaideep Sahni, Sriram Raghavan, Juhi Chaturvedi, Himanshu
Sharma, Shridhar Raghavan, Varun Grover, Neeraj Ghaywan, Sudip Sharma, Navdeep Singh,
Saiwyn Quadros, Sanyuktha Chawla-Shaikh, shared their creative and professional struggles,
explained their style and approach to writing, and offered a wealth of tips for new writers.
Though not without its faults, the workshop was enlightening and enthusing. Replete with
Anjums personal stories of failure, it encouraged participants to write. Till the age of 34, I didnt
know the meaning of screenplay. I had only written articles. It is possible to reinvent yourself. Get
the junk out of the way, which is usually the rst draft. Write what you enjoy seeing on screen and
no joy equals to that of writing FADE OUT.
Without further ado, heres a rundown of what happened at the workshop. It is a gist at best.
Day 1
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Session 1: The Importance of Stories and Storytelling

After a quick introduction, we were handed writing pads with Stanley Kubricks quote If it can
be written or thought, it can be lmed. Anjum delved into how stories help us make sense of the
chaos of life. We are constantly battling the senselessness of life and stories help us nd meaning.
They unravel the complexity of lived reality.
When it comes to story ideas, we were told that, just the way you dont marry the rst person you
date, you dont commit to the rst idea that comes to mind. Spend time in building a trove and
the one that stays is worth looking into, the prerequisite being that it should move you profoundly
in a sad or joyous way. Once that idea is discerned, live, breathe and fornicate with it.
Meaningful stories are the ones that address human condition. They offer a lifelike experience and
make viewers suspend their judgments. Reality takes a backseat. Lions may not speak in real life
but Lion King makes the viewer suspend this disbelief.
After a bout of anecdotes, the interactive session snowballed into a volley of irrelevant questions
that lasted much beyond the time allocated for the same. Future participants should be careful
about asking pertinent questions to avoid this debacle. While a participant pointed out that Sholay
didnt take into account the greys of characters and how she had a problem that Gabbar Singh
was depicted as pure evil, Anjum quipped, You cant screw up a lm like Sholay with greyness.
It is not about understanding evil. It is about destroying it, as opposed to Satya. This exchange
turned into a debate about whether the workshop would be democratic. Though it was a delight
to see Anjum eld questions with his special brand of humour and irreverence, he was forced to
downsize some other germane discussions.
Session 2 Premise : The Dramatic Centre/ Expansion into Plot
If you cant say it in one sentence, you dont know what its about.
This one kickstarted the workshop in the real sense of the word. Premise is the interplay between
theprotagonist and the central situation (conict). The energy of the story comes from these one
or twosentences that form the premise. Everything else is a sub-plot.
We deciphered the premises of different lms. Most of the participants were surprised when
they discovered that though Dil Chahta Hais theme is friendship, the premise is about Aamir
Khans failure tounderstand adult love.
Anjum went on to explain how the specicity of the premise is directly proportional to the
effectivenessof the screenplay. In case of the lm Neerja, participants deduced It is the story of
an airhostessgrappling with a plane hijack and responding with courage. Anjum explained how
Neerja is the story of an ordinary girl nding extraordinary courage. The particularity of the
ordinariness of the character is ofsignicance. If the airhostess were a woman trained in martial
arts, the story wouldnt have worked.
The plot is the dramatic progression of the character and the central situation. The premise
generallykicks in during ACT II. While setting up the story in Act I, the character should reveal
characteristics orpeculiarities that lead to the premise. In Sholay, though Thakur has lost both his
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hands, the emotion thestory evokes is only anger and not sympathy since the premise involves
revenge. There is not a singlescene in the lm where Thakur is shown in a pitiful state.
We watched the short lm, Le Poulet, inferred its premise, discussed the purpose of every scene
and analysed the point where the premise was activated. Anjum helped us examine the way in
which theprotagonists struggle is visually depicted (your lm should cover action, not activity).
There was also adiscussion on how twists work in lms. A good twist is the one that surprises
you but in retrospect itsinevitable.
Takeaway: Once an idea arrives, you need to hit upon it with a premise. The premise is like
alighthouse. If youre ever stuck while writing a scene, look to the logline and it will push you in
the rightdirection.
Stories fraught with failure were more revealing. Anjum candidly gave references of his own lms
Pukarand Arakshan and how they moved away from the premise and suffered. Pukar was to be a
love story based on Samson and Delilah but the love story turned into a sub-plot when the
screenplay advanced and Arakshan dealt with reservation in the rst half and the second half
became aboutcommercialization of education.
Constant references to lms like Sholay, Deewar and the likes were denitely helpful to those who
havegrown up on that fare but to a large extent the grammar of lms has changed. If there were
morereferences to contemporary lms, the juxtaposition would have been more pertinent.
Session 3 Character, Characterisation, Character Arc, Transformation.
Discovering the Characterspersonality, qualities relevant to your plot.
The protagonist is dened by her/his struggle and her/his steadfast commitment.
When it comes to characterisation, imagine the vulnerabilities and unmet desires of the character.
Beingvulnerable is a sign of being alive. Explore the physiology (paunch, looks, etc.), sociology
(caste,class,neighbourhood) and psychology of the main characters (fears, vices, early memories
etc.)
Place the character in multiple what if situations and reect on her/his reactions. Anjum warned
us about digressing and crafting character sketches that run into pages with immaterial details
like thebrand of toothpaste the character uses. (Precisely Bhaad mein gayi uski chaddi/ Bhaad
mein gayi uskitoothpaste).The premise serves as a beacon at this stage too. The characteristics of
the protagonistshould propel the premise.
At the heart of any good story is character evolution. A character arc is the transformation or
innerjourney of a character over the course of a story.
Ask two questions of your character with regard to the character arc:
What does s/he want?
What does s/he really want?
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In case of Airlift, Ranjit Katiyal initially wants to ensure the safety of his family and then includes
hisemployees in its ambit.
The most interesting stories are the ones where the characters have lost the battle but won the war.
Film Screening: Little Miss Sunshine
Takeaway: A character sketch is not a biography. Brevity is your best friend.
Despite Anjum repeating countless times about questioning the main characters in relation to
thepremise, a participant was hell-bent on deconstructing the character of Samba in Sholay.
Day 2
Session 4 Script Analysis of Little Miss Sunshine (with emphasis on characters and their arcs)
After diving into the vulnerabilities of each character and discussing how each character was
introducedon screen, we dissected the 14-minute dinner scene which exhausts all the possibilities
of dissonance.
Dissonance lends the plot the essential dramatic vigour.
For a rewarding character arc, put your characters in the worst situations and dire places. Let
them digdeep and nd their way out.
We traced the journey of all the characters how each of them started and how their arcs blended
withthe resolution of the lm.
In Little Miss Sunshine, Richard tells his daughter, If you win, we will go. In the climax we see
himjoining her with jubilation as she loses. This ip makes for a good character arc.
While there have been lms with a few exceptions, your scripts should have at least one major
characterwho goes through a change in his belief or behavior.
Takeaway: Ironies and paradoxes make for good stories.
Session 5 Structuring the Screenplay
A screening of the short lm, The Lunch Date, shined a light on how prejudice operates
throughgeneralization. It is dissolved by treating the person as an individual. Hence a personal
experience canhelp one overcome prejudice. This led to the premise of a rich lady encountering a
poor, black,homeless man.
Anjum explained how it is important to exploit every single frame in a short lm. The lm just
like Hitchcocks Psycho sways your perspective. Irrespective of rationality or morality, viewers
feel sympathytowards characters that are vulnerable and struggling.

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Before plunging headlong into the three act structure, a disclaimer is in order. This popular
structure is not a formula or a model to follow consciously. It is meant to be imbibed and
forgotten.
Act I Setup Introduce characters. Establish their situations. Begin your sub-plots.
Act II Confrontation The plot goes into second gear and the premise blooms here.
Act III Resolution
Takeaway: Treat the knowledge of the 3 act structure as scaffolding. Knowledge transforms to
wisdom when it becomes second nature. Thought can be the enemy of creativity. Too much
thinking leads to contrivances in the plot. Write and when you nd yourself faltering, evaluate
your screenplay with thehelp of the 3 act structure.
Session 6 Scene Design
The structural unity of the parts is such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the
whole willbe disjointed and disturbed. For a thing whose presence or absence makes no visible
difference is not anorganic part of the whole. Aristotle
The questions to explore before writing a scene:
What is the purpose of the scene? Is the scene related to the rest of the story? How does it advance
the story? Does it reveal something important about the character? Are you introducing a
character? Does the dialogue reect character? Do your characters have something to do any
activity?
We scrutinized a scene from the lm, Amadeus against the parameters mentioned above.
Screening of Incendies
Day 3
Session 6: Scene Design Continued
We studied the opening scene of The Godfather where the aim was to introduce the Godfather
and his system. Anjum explained how the scene exploits the discord created by an emotional
reaction. A monologue at the start of the lm is generally considered as suicide but this one
weaves in intrigue sinceit is structured like a story. This scene is a master class on how an organic
quality of the character lends adramatic touch. This drama is a rich device to bring to the fore, the
hidden.
Takeaway: This was the most gratifying session since we analysed every frame of the scene and
trackedits progression. While Anjum deconstructed the scene, it dawned upon me that this is the
part I likemost about the whole process of screenwriting crafting the nuances of a scene. It also
elevated mycapacity to savour aspects of lms that I had earlier mindlessly consumed.

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Thanks to questions that only served to stoke the pseudo intelligence of some participants, the
session on analysis of the lm Incendies had to be deferred. Another purpose of questioning
seemed to bename-dropping.
Dipti Kharude (https://twitter.com/kuhukuro)
Master class with Sudip Sharma and Navdeep Singh To be continued.
Comments
Rishabh Sriwastava says:
April 30, 2016 at 18:24
The rst scene of Omkara was equally beautiful. It establishes the mood of the movie.
However in Bollywood, in most movies, rst few minutes are leisurely wasted.
Reply
(@Tanweeer) says:
May 2, 2016 at 17:07
Thanks for sharing this. Very helpful.

Reply

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